Dyslexia is an impairment in the brain's ability to translate written images received from the eyes into meaningful thoughts. It is a "hidden" disability. In terms of appearance, they seem "normal", like any other child, but face difficulties in reading, writing, and mathematics. However, intelligence is not affected; in fact it may be even be in the superior or gifted range.

In Malaysia, there are 500,000 children suffering from dyslexia in 2008.

Conditions Associated with Dyslexia

Dyslexia can be associated with other conditions such as ADHD and autism as sometimes a child may have these conditions in addition to dyslexia.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common mental disorders that develop in children whereby they have difficulty paying attention, staying focused, controlling their behaviour and are hyperactive.

Autism is a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behaviour.

21 Tell-tale Signs & Symptoms of a Child with Dyslexia

1. Difficulty with fastening coat, shoelace and tie.
2. Shoes often on wrong feet, seeming unaware that they are uncomfortable.
3. Clumsy/Accident-prone behaviour.
4. Difficulty in hopping or skipping.
5. Difficulty in throwing, catching or kicking a ball.
6.  Difficulty understanding prepositions connected to direction e.g. in/out, up/down, under/over, forward/backward.
7. Difficulty in carrying out more than one instruction at a time.
8. Possible history of slow speech development.
9. Excessive spoonerism e.g. "par car" for "car park", "beg and acorn" for "egg and bacon."
10. Difficulty in pronouncing multi-syllable words e.g. "hopsital" for "hospital."
11. Difficulty in finding the name for an object.
12. Confusion between left and right.
13. Undetermined hand preference.
14. Poor handwriting with many reversals and badly formed letters.
15. Inability to copy accurately, particularly from blackboard.
16. Difficulty remembering what day it is, own birthday, address, and phone number.
17. Difficulty learning to tell time.
18. Unsure about "yesterday" or "tomorrow."
19. Difficulty remembering anything in sequential order e.g. day of the week, month of the year, and multiplication tables.
20. Poor reading progress on both look and say and phonic methods.
21. Excessive tiredness due to the amount of concentration and effort required often for very little result.